System and method for presenting program guide information in an electronic portable device

ABSTRACT

A controlling device is provided with the ability to present personalized program guide information by using personal preferences provided to a home computing device. The personal preferences are used to filter program guide data received at the home computing device whereby the program guide data will include only programming information for user-specified sources of programming for each of plural, different user-specified periods of time. The filtered program guide data is then downloaded to the controlling device from the home computing device for use in connection with an application of the controlling device that functions to display program guide information within a display of the controlling device.

RELATED APPLICATION INFORMATION

This application claims the benefit of and is a continuation-in-part ofU.S. application Ser. No. 11/312,303, filed on Dec. 20, 2005, which, inturn, is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 10/287,389filed on Nov. 4, 2002 which is a continuation-in-part of U.S.application Ser. No. 09/905,396, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,938,101, filed onJul. 13, 2001 and which claims the benefit of U.S. Application Nos.60/390,167 filed on Jun. 20, 2002, 60/374,556 filed on Apr. 22, 2002,60/371,223 filed on Apr. 9, 2002, 60/344,020 filed on Dec. 20, 2001, and60/334,774 filed on Nov. 20, 2001.

Through U.S. application Ser. No. 11/312,303 this application alsoclaims the benefit of and is a continuation-in-part of U.S. applicationSer. No. 10/287,337 filed on Nov. 4, 2002 which, in turn, is acontinuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 09/905,396 filed onJul. 13, 2001 and which claims the benefit of U.S. Application Nos.60/390,286 filed on Jun. 20, 2002, 60/378,902 filed on May 8, 2002, and60/334,020 filed on Nov. 27, 2001.

Still further, through U.S. application Ser. No. 11/312,303 thisapplication claims the benefit of and is a continuation-in-part of U.S.application Ser. No. 10/288,727 filed on Nov. 6, 2002 which claims thebenefit of U.S. Application Nos. 60/344,020 filed on Dec. 20, 2001 and60/334,774 filed on Nov. 20, 2001.

All of these applications are hereby incorporated by reference in theirentirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention generally relates to a system and method for presentingprogram guide information in the display of an electronic portabledevice having communication capabilities such as a personal digitalassistant (“PDA”), Web Tablet, touch screen remote control, lap-topcomputer, mobile gaming device, and the like.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with the description that follows, a system and method isprovided for presenting information, such as program guide information,in a portable electronic device. A better understanding of the objects,advantages, features, properties and relationships of the invention willbe obtained from the following detailed description and accompanyingdrawings which set forth illustrative embodiments and which areindicative of the various ways in which the principles of the inventionmay be employed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a better understanding of the various aspects of the invention,reference may be had to preferred embodiments shown in the attacheddrawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary portable device having a remote controlapplication for use in controlling the operation of home appliances;

FIG. 2 illustrates exemplary screen shots of a graphical user interfaceof the portable device of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary network by which program guideinformation is downloadable to the portable device of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 illustrates a more detailed view of the network illustrated inFIG. 3;

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary screen shot of a setup wizard of theportable device of FIG. 1 specifically illustrating the step ofassociating a favorite channel key with downloadable program guideinformation;

FIGS. 6 and 7 illustrate an exemplary favorite channel page without andwith the display of program guide information;

FIG. 8 illustrates a further exemplary favorite channel page whichincludes display of program guide information;

FIG. 9 illustrates a second exemplary portable device having a remotecontrol application for use in controlling the operation of homeappliances;

FIG. 10 illustrates systems in which the exemplary portable device ofFIG. 9 may be used;

FIG. 11 illustrates an exemplary system and network by which programguide information may be obtained for use in the portable device of FIG.9;

FIG. 12 illustrates a further exemplary system and network by whichprogram guide information may be obtained for use in the portable deviceof FIG. 9;

FIG. 13 illustrates a further exemplary portable device having a remotecontrol application for use in controlling the operation of homeappliances;

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In an exemplary embodiment, a universal remote control function isprovided as an application which may run on a portable electronic device10. By way of example, representative platforms for the device 10include, but are not limited to, devices such as remote controls (e.g.,remote control 90 or 90′), lap-top computers, Web Tablets, mobile gamingdevices, mobile phones, and/or PDAs manufactured by HP/Compaq (such asthe iPAQ brand PDA), Palm, Visor, Sony, etc. Thus, a preferredunderlying platform includes a processor coupled to a memory systemcomprising one or more of a ROM memory, non-volatile read/write memory,and/or RAM memory (a memory system); a display screen to provide visiblefeedback to a user; a key matrix for user input in the form of physicalbuttons, a touch sensitive surface overlaying all or part of a displayscreen, or a combination of both; an internal clock and timer; atransmission circuit; a power supply; and I/O circuitry for allowing thedevice to exchange communications with an external computer such asserver and/or client. Additional input circuitry, such as a barcodereader, may also be utilized.

To control the operation of the device 10, the memory system includesexecutable instructions that are intended to be executed by theprocessor. In this manner, the processor may be programmed to controlthe various electronic components within the device 10, e.g., to monitorpower, to cause the transmission of signals, etc. Within the memorysystem, the ROM portion of memory is preferably used to store fixedprogramming and data that remains unchanged for the life of the product.The non-volatile read/write memory, which may be FLASH, EEPROM,battery-backed up RAM, “Smart Card,” memory stick, or the like, ispreferably provided to store consumer entered setup data and parameters,downloaded data, etc., as necessary. RAM memory may be used by theprocessor for working storage as well as to hold data items which, byvirtue of being backed up or duplicated on an external computer (forexample, a client device) are not required to survive loss of batterypower. While the described memory system preferably comprises all threeclasses of memory, it will be appreciated that, in general, the memorysystem can be comprised of any type of computer-readable media, such asROM, RAM, SRAM, FLASH, EEPROM, or the like in various combinations.Preferably, however, at least part of the memory system should benon-volatile or battery backed such that basic setup parameters andoperating features will survive loss of battery power. In addition, suchmemories may take the form of a chip, a hard disk, a magnetic disk,and/or an optical disk without limitation.

For commanding the operation of appliances of different makes, models,and types, the memory system may also include a command code library.The command code library is comprised of a plurality of command codesthat may be transmitted from the device 10 under the direction of theremote control application for the purpose of controlling the operationof an appliance. The memory system may also includes instructions whichthe processor uses in connection with the transmission circuit to causethe command codes to be transmitted in a format recognized by anidentified appliance. While the transmission circuit preferably utilizesinfrared transmissions, it will be appreciated that other forms of wiredor wireless transmissions, such as radio frequency, may also be used.

To identify appliances by type and make (and sometimes model) such thatthe remote control application of the device 10 is adapted to cause thetransmission of command codes in the format appropriate for suchidentified appliances, information may be entered into the device 10.Since methods for setting up a remote control application to cause thetransmissions of commands to control the operation of specificappliances are well-known, they will not be described in greater detailherein. Nevertheless, for additional details pertaining to remotecontrol application setup, the reader may turn to U.S. Pat. Nos.6,225,938, 4,623,887, 5,872,562, 5,614,906, 4,959,810, 4,774,511, and4,703,359 which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.It should also be appreciated that these set-up methods may be used toconfigure a personal computer to communicate with a home appliance, forexample, if the personal computer is anticipated to use wirelesscommunications to command the operation of appliances in a homeentertainment network such as described below.

To cause the device 10 to perform an action, the device 10 is adapted tobe responsive to events such as, by way of example only, a sensedconsumer interaction with one or more keys on the key matrix, a sensedconsumer interaction with a touch screen display if so equipped, or asensed signal from an external source such as a remote computer. Inresponse to an event, appropriate instructions within the memory systemare executed. For example, when a hard or soft command key associatedwith the remote control application is activated on the device 10, thedevice 10 may read the command code corresponding to the activatedcommand key from the memory system and transmit the command code to anappliance in a format recognizable by the appliance. It will beappreciated that the instructions within the memory system can be usednot only to cause the transmission of command codes to appliances butalso to perform local operations. While not limiting, local operationsthat may be performed by the device that are related to the remotecontrol application include favorite channel setup, macro button setup,command function key relocation, etc. Examples of such local operationscan be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,481,256, 5,959,751, 6,014,092, whichare incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

As discussed, the platform of the device 10 preferably comprises ageneral purpose, processor system which is controllable by software. Thesoftware may include routines, programs, objects, components, and/ordata structures that perform particular tasks that can be viewed as anoperating system together with one or more applications. In someembodiments the operating system, for example a “Windows CE,” Linux, orSymbian operating system or the like, may provide an underlying set ofmanagement and control functions which are utilized by applications tooffer the consumer functions such as calendar, address book,spreadsheet, notepad, Internet browsing, etc., as well as control ofappliances. Thus, it is to be understood that applications in additionto or complimentary with the remote control application may also besupported by the device 10 and, as such, in terms of the internalsoftware architecture, in certain embodiments the “remote control”application may be but one of several possible applications which mayco-exist within the device 10.

In terms of providing operating system functionality, it should also beunderstood that the demarcation between the portable device 10 and ahost/client computer, described in greater detail hereinafter, may varyconsiderably from product to product. For example, at one extreme theportable device 10 may be nothing more than a slave display and inputdevice in wireless communication with a computer that performs allcomputational functions. At the other extreme, the portable device 10may be a fully-functional computer system in its own right complete withlocal mass storage. Alternatively, the functionality of device 10 may berestricted to that of a control device for appliances and/or mediastreams, etc. only—i.e. it is also to be appreciated that a hardwareplatform similar to that described above may be used in conjunction witha scaled-down operating system to provide remote control functionalityonly, i.e., as a standalone application. In all cases, however, theprinciples expressed herein remain the same.

To provide a means by which an consumer can interact with the device 10,the device 10 is preferably provided with software that implements agraphical user interface. The graphical user interface software may alsoprovide access to additional software, such as a browser application,that is used to display information that may be received from anexternal computer. Such a graphical user interface system is describedin pending U.S. Applications Nos. 60/264,767, 60/334,774, and 60/344,020all of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

In one embodiment, for controlling the operation of one or more consumerappliances 12, 14, and/or 16 as illustrated in FIG. 1, the portablecontrolling device 10 may include a universal remote control applicationwith a graphical user interface. Features offered by the remote controlapplication may include a “home page” 20 from which the user may selectvarious functionalities such as, for example, a device control panel 22,a “Favorites” page 24 (which allows direct tuning of an appliance bymeans of a command transmission to a favorite program channel asindicated to a user by the logo/name associated with the programchannel), a program guide display 26, etc. all as illustrated in FIG. 2.

In particular, the remote control application may provide one or morefavorites pages 24 containing button icons 28 which the user mayconfigure for direct access to his favorite programming (for example, tocause the transmissions of commands to cause a device to tune to afavorite channel or to begin rendering a particular media stream),switch to or enable a favorite device, etc. Access to such favoritespages may be made, for example, via activation of an icon 210 on thehome screen page 20 illustrated in FIG. 2. An exemplary favorites pageis illustrated in FIGS. 2( b) and 6. A favorites page may be populatedwith a selection 28 of commonly requested content providers (e.g., usingtheir logos) as shown in FIG. 2( b). Initialization of the favoritespage preferably occurs during initial set-up of the remote controlapplication as described in detail in co-pending U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 10/288,727 entitled “User Interface for a Hand Held RemoteControl Device,” of like assignee. It will also be appreciated thatfavorites pages may subsequently be edited or additional favorites pagesmay be created such as, for example, when users and/or rooms and/orequipment are added to the control device 10.

As described in the above referenced U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/288,727, a favorites setup wizard may be provided as part of theremote control application programming to guide a user through the stepsnecessary to configure each favorite button 28. This wizard may firstguide the user through the recording of a sequence of keystrokes orother actions/events which are to be associated with the favorites entrybeing configured. Once the commands and/or actions desired to beassociated with the button have been defined, the user may then berequested to assign a label (name) and image (icon) to the favoritesentry. In the present exemplary embodiment, the step of labeling thefavorite may also include an option for the user to associate the buttonwith the program guide information for a particular channel. Asillustrated in FIG. 5, the user may select this option 52 and enter achannel number 54 corresponding to one of the program guide data fields.(For the sake of brevity, the graphical user interface panelscorresponding to the other steps of this setup wizard are notillustrated herein, however the interested reader may find these fullyillustrated and described in detail in the before referenced U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 10/288,727.)

An exemplary result of using the setup wizard is illustrated in FIGS. 6and 7. FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary favorites page display 24 withfavorite buttons 28 according to the prior referenced U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 10/288,727 (or according to the current embodimentin the case where program guide associations 52 were declined by theuser). FIG. 7 illustrates a similar favorites page 70 with program guideassociations enabled such that the favorites display of FIG. 7 includessupplemental text panels 78 below each button 28 to provide informationregarding the current programming content available on each of thedesignated channels. The program guide data from which theseinformational displays 78 are derived is the same program guide datathat is used to generate the full page guide display grid 26 illustratedin FIG. 2 or 3. It will be appreciated that while text data is mostreadily adapted for display in supplemental text panels 78, any type ofdata (e.g., alphanumeric, graphical, iconic, colors, etc.) may bedisplayed and that the information may be displayed in any fashion(e.g., horizontal scrolling, blinking, vertical rolling, etc.) in orderto convey desired information to a user. As such the term “text panel”should be read broadly as generally indicative of data fields capable ofdisplaying any type of information, collectively referred to as“supplemental data,” in any manner as described herein.

By way of further example, FIG. 8 illustrates an additional favoritesdisplay page 80. In this example, favorites buttons 82 have beenconfigured to access multiple concurrently active sporting events suchas, for example, those available to a subscriber to DirecTV's “NFLSunday Ticket” service. In this example, supplemental text panels 88display the team match-up on each channel, once again derived fromdownloaded program guide data 48′.

While not intended to be limiting, the program guide may be representedas a grid having a plurality of cells containing program information,where the cells are arranged in rows corresponding to content providersand columns corresponding to times of day, such as described, forexample, in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/287,389entitled “System and Method for Interacting with a Program GuideDisplayed on a Portable Electronic Device,” of like assignee. Asillustrated in FIGS. 2( c) and 3, program guide display 26 rowindicators may be formatted using channel names and/or numbers 38, orchannel logos to identify soft keys or hard keys (collectively referredto as “buttons”) which the consumer may activate in order to have thedevice 10 transmit the appropriate remote control command(s) to cause anappliance to tune to a channel corresponding to the labeled button. Ifused, the channel logo graphics may be included as part of downloadedprogram guide data, as will be described hereinafter, or the graphicsmay be linked to and derived from the icon data 412 (FIG. 4) used tocreate the favorite channel display page(s) 24. It will also beappreciated that the program guide display 26 may be arranged innumerical or alphabetical sequence by channel, by favorite channel (inthe same sequence as they appear in a favorite channels page 24), byprogram type or genre, etc.

Data for the program guide display 26 may be obtained over the Internet30 from a program guide database server 32 using a personal computer 34and docking station 36 as illustrated in FIG. 3. In such a system, thedevice 10 is periodically docked with the docking station 36 for filesynchronization purposes. Since software for providing suchsynchronization functionality, e.g., Microsoft's ActiveSync brandsynchronization software, is well known and widely used in PDAapplications, this functionality will not be discussed in further detailherein.

To acquire guide data for use in connection with the remote controlapplication, an exemplary guide data acquisition process is illustratedin FIG. 4. As illustrated, raw program guide data 40 is generallyavailable by subscription from entities such as, for example, TribuneMedia Services (“TMS”). A program guide data server 32 having a webserver interface 44 is normally configured to access the TMS data on aperiodic basis, typically once every 24 hours, after TMS's nightlyupdate is complete. The raw guide data obtained from TMS may then beformatted and stored into a local database 42 associated with the Webserver 32. Additional data, such as graphics 401, which may beassociated with program descriptions, special service information,and/or advertising 402 (e.g., pay-per view), etc. may also be obtainedfrom third-party sources and combined into the database 42 for laterdelivery to system users. It should also be appreciated that, while theillustrated examples are in the context of a TV program database sourcedfrom TMS, in practice the programming information stored in the serverdatabase 42 may be obtained from several different sources and may spanmore than one type of programming, for example, radio broadcastinformation, Webcasts, etc. in addition to or as a substitute for TVschedule information.

To obtain program guide information for use with program guide displayapplication 414, a consumer may log onto the Web server 32 using apersonal computer 34 and any standard Web browser such as, for example,Microsoft's Internet Explorer brand Web browser. The Web server 32identifies the consumer and their preferences via a combination oflog-in data stored in a registration database 46 and/or a “cookie”stored on the consumer's local hard drive, as is known in the art. Adetailed exemplary description of how a user may register at andestablish preferences with such a server may be found in co-pending U.S.patent application Ser. No. 10/287,411 “System And Method ForControlling The Recording Functionality Of An Appliance Using A ProgramGuide” or Ser. No. 10/287,337 “System and Method for UpdatingInformation in a Portable Electronic Device”, both of like assignee, andfor the sake of brevity will accordingly not be repeated herein. It willbe appreciated that once the initial registration and preference settingis complete, the process of downloading program guide data may beautomated. For example, the consumer's computer 34 may be configured toautomatically dial out via a PSTN or Internet at a fixed time everynight, at some predetermined time interval, etc. to contact the Webserver 32 and retrieve the guide data.

Based on the identity and preferences of a consumer, a Web serverinterface 44 and related data extraction programs, illustrated in FIG.4, extract an appropriate subset of the program guide data stored in thedatabase 42 and format this extracted data into a personal guide datafile 48 for transfer to the consumer's computer 34 via the Internet 30.The transferred guide data file may include program listing informationoriginating from the program guide data provider 40; supplementalgraphics and/or advertising 401 either associated with particularprograms or free standing (originating from program graphicsprovider(s)); special channel service information 402 (originating fromthe service provider of other entities); etc. all of which may beindividually tailored to the consumer based on their specifiedpreferences, service type, and/or geographic location. For example, asdescribed in U.S. application Ser. No. 10/288,727 and U.S. ProvisionalApplication No. 60/344,020, preferences that may be specified/setup by auser may provide for the inclusion within the program guide of favoritechannels across one or multiple programming sources, may provide for thelistings within the program guide to be day of week or time of daydependent (e.g., programming for a first designated group of channelswill be displayed on weekdays while programming for a second designatedgroup of channels will be displayed on weekends; programming for a firstdesignated group of channels will be displayed between 8 AM and 12 PM,programming for a second designated group of channels will be displayedbetween 12 PM and 7 PM, programming for a third designated group ofchannels will be displayed between 7 PM and 12 AM, etc.; and the like),may be dependent upon a user id that is provided to the controllingdevice 10, etc. Once located on the consumer's computer 34 the file 48,created considering any established preferences, can be automaticallytransferred to the device 10 via the synchronization process 410 thenext time the device 10 is docked with the computer 34, i.e., the device10 will now have data file 48′ stored in its memory.

The various user interactions with program guide display 26 and guideapplication 414, for example obtaining additional information regardinga current or upcoming program, selecting the channel currently beingviewed, tagging future programs for recording, etc. are described ingreater detail in the before referenced co-pending application U.S.patent application Ser. No. 10/287,389 and will not be further describedherein.

In the exemplary embodiment, guide data 48′ locally stored in portabledevice 10 is also used by favorite channel display application 416, inconjunction with favorite channel icon data 412, to generate favoritechannel display pages, for example of the type illustrated in FIG. 7 or8. To this end, it will be appreciated that the programming may accessone or more designated data fields in the program guide file 48′ (e.g.,the title of the program data field) that are associated with a favoritechannel and a desired time (e.g., the time at which the user firstinstantiates the favorite channel page or a time designated by the user(which allows for the viewing of future information), etc. whichdisplayed information may be updated automatically by the programmingaccessing the data file 48′ at, for example, predetermined timeintervals such as every 5 minutes, every ½ hour, etc. especially whenused to display information to the user according to the current time)to derive the information to be displayed in the fields 78.

In some instances, the consumer's computer 34 may also be connected to ahome network which may be wired or wireless. In such a case, alsoattached to the home network may be a network-enabled appliance which isalready equipped to obtain and store program guide information, forexample, a digital cable set top box, a digital video recorder (“DVR”),etc. It will be appreciated that in these instances program guide datafor utilization in the portable device may be obtained locally ratherthan via the Internet, either using computer 34 as an intermediary, ordirectly by the portable device itself via a wireless link such as IEEE802.11, Bluetooth, Zigbee, etc. or even direct docking with theappliance upon which the guide data is maintained.

By way of further example, FIGS. 9, 10, and 13 illustrate an exemplarysystem in which a portable device 10 in the form of a remote controldevice 90/90′ is adapted to acquire guide data from a personal computer34′ as shown in FIG. 10( a), or set top box 92 as shown in FIG. 10( b),which acquires and stores program guide data in order to support aninteractive program guide display 96 on a connected video renderingdevice 94 (e.g., television set 16, PC monitor, home theater projector,portable display device, etc.). Although illustrated herein in terms ofan exemplary PC or set top box, it should be appreciated that in generalthe program guide data acquisition and storage device may be a digitalcable box, satellite receiver, DVR, personal computer, home mediacenter, internet gateway, etc., without limitation.

With respect to the remote control 90′ illustrated in FIG. 13, theremote control 90′ includes a display 1300 in which is displayed aportion of a listing 1304, e.g., a listing comprised of favorite channelnumbers or other form of network/programming source identifiers and/orcurrently airing/available programming, and a navigation means, such asscroll wheel 1302, scroll pad 1306, touch pad, arrow keys, etc., bywhich the user may change that portion of the listing 1304 that ispresented within the display 1300. It will be appreciated that scrollingthrough the listing 1304 may be stopped at the respective top and bottomof the listing 1304, i.e., the listing 1304 is linear, or scrollingthrough the favorites channel listing 1304 may be continuous, i.e., thelisting 1304 is circular and has no end points. Furthermore, the remotecontrol 90′ may include a selection means, such as inward activation ofthe scroll wheel 1302, selection key 1308, etc., by which a user mayselect one of the displayed listing entries, for example a highlightedlisting entry, a listing entry in a predetermined location within thedisplay 1300 such as a centered position, etc. to cause the remotecontrol 90′ to issue appropriate commands to cause a tuning device totune to/select programming corresponding to the selected displayedlisting entry.

The interaction of the various components of these exemplary systems isillustrated in greater detail in FIGS. 11 and 12. Turning now to FIG.11, user-configured program guide data 48 may be acquired by PC 34 viathe Internet 30 (in a manner similar to that previously described inconjunction with FIG. 4). Such guide data may be used for generalpurpose guide display purposes by an application 1100 resident on PC 34;for scheduling of a PC-based DVR application (not shown); for updatingviewing calendars, for making viewing recommendations, etc. PC 34 mayalso be capable of communicating with portable device 90/90′ via awireless link 1102 using either a standard networking protocol such asIEEE 802.11, Bluetooth, Zigbee, etc., or a proprietary point-to-point orother wireless communication protocol. Portable device 90/90′ mayutilize wireless link 1102 to download all or portions of the guide data48 and store these locally in a similar manner to the portable device 10of FIG. 4, or alternatively, as illustrated here may simply include anapplication 1104 which interacts directly with the PC-based guide data48 to retrieve the necessary entries as and when favorite channel pagesare generated by favorite channel display application 416. In certainembodiments where the portable device includes a graphics-capabledisplay, for example the device 90 illustrated in FIG. 9, for thepurposes of facilitating favorite channel display functionality icondata 412 may be stored locally within the portable device as describedearlier, either downloaded in conjunction with or prior to the guidedata downloaded by application 416. In alternative embodiments whereinthe portable device includes only a text-capable display, for examplethe device 90′ illustrated in FIG. 13, such icon storage may not benecessary since the textual channel designations (e.g. a channel number“007” or a network identification “ABC”) may be included as part of thefavorite channel guide information downloaded from a PC or set top boxby application 1104.

FIG. 12 illustrates an exemplary system in which program guide data isdistributed via satellite. A satellite service provider 1210 acquiresand formats guide data 42 which is then accessed by a satellite uplinkinterface 1220 for distribution over a satellite network 1230. Asatellite set top box 92 receives and decodes the satellitetransmissions and stores the program guide data 48 locally within thebox. This data may then be utilized by an interactive program guideapplication 1200 to allow a user to select channels for viewing,schedule recordings, etc., by interacting with a program grid displayedon a connected display device 94. Additionally, a portable device 90capable of wireless communication 1102 with set top box 92 may useprogram guide data 48 to populate a favorite channel pages generated bya favorite channel display application 416.

It will be further appreciated that the controlling device may be atuner, such as associated with a satellite radio system or otherbroadcasting system, where the supplemental data may be one or more ofsong titles, artist information, album information, genre information,program/movie titles, actor information, ratings information, closedcaptioning information, etc. that is extracted from the mediatransmission(s) and which may be displayed in association with thefavorites buttons, e.g., preset tuning buttons, as described above. Tothis end, the supplemental data may be extracted from the mediatransmission(s) upon instantiation of the favorites page (or atdesignated times in the event the favorites page continues to bedisplayed) and/or may be periodically extracted from the mediatransmission(s) and stored in memory to thereby be made available foruse in connection with the system described. Similarly, it will beappreciated that the supplemental data may be near realtime informationthat is extracted from one or more internet Web sites. For example, aWeb site, which would likely be pre-designated by the supplier of themedia content and/or provided at a time of configuration of thefavorites page, may be accessed in connection with the display of thefavorites page to retrieve supplemental data concerning a score of asporting event, time remaining in a sporting event, etc. Still further,it will be appreciated that the favorites page may be configured suchthat the appearance of the favorites page is dynamically altereddepending upon the supplemental data. For example, the favorites pagemay be configured such that the position of favorites buttons on afavorites page are dynamically changed according to time remaining in abroadcast program, according to score differential in a sporting event,according to programming genre or programming ratings, etc. and/or theappearance of favorites buttons and/or supplemental text fields (e.g.,using foreground/background color schemes, flashing, etc.) may bedynamically changed based upon the genre of programming, ratings ofprograms, etc.

While various concepts have been described in detail, it will beappreciated by those skilled in the art that various modifications andalternatives to those concepts could be developed in light of theoverall teachings of the disclosure. For example, although illustrativeembodiments are presented in the context of favorite channel displays ona portable controlling device, it will be appreciated that the methodsdescribed herein may be applied in general to any application whereinthere is a requirement to present a user with a series of selections forwhich it is advantageous to associate time-variable content descriptorswith a group of fixed delivery conduits. For example, it may bedesirable to configure a controlling device display such that ClosedCaption (CC) data may be provided in one or more of the supplementaldata panels displayed in association with channel buttons using theinventive concepts described herein. Further, while an exemplaryembodiment described herein uses a setup wizard resident on the portabledevice itself to configure favorite channel displays, it will beappreciated that in alternative embodiments such configuration and setupmay be performed using an external application and downloaded into theportable device, for example by a PC based editing program such as thatdescribed in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/218,900“Configurable Controlling Device Having an Associated Editing Program”,of like assignee. In yet further exemplary embodiments, the favoritechannel configuration information may be retained on the PC or set topbox together with user and time/date preference information and thefavorite channel display information generated by a PC application inreal time upon request by a portable device (for example 90′) either atscheduled time intervals or as triggered by user action.

While described in the context of functional modules and illustratedusing block diagram format, it is to be understood that, unlessotherwise stated to the contrary, one or more of the described functionsand/or features may be integrated in a single physical device and/or asoftware module, or one or more functions and/or features may beimplemented in separate physical devices or software modules. It willalso be appreciated that a detailed discussion of the actualimplementation of each module is not necessary for an enablingunderstanding of the invention. Rather, the actual implementation ofsuch modules would be well within the routine skill of an engineer,given the disclosure herein of the attributes, functionality, andinter-relationship of the various functional modules in the system.Therefore, a person skilled in the art, applying ordinary skill, will beable to practice the invention set forth in the claims without undueexperimentation. It will be additionally appreciated that the particularconcepts disclosed are meant to be illustrative only and not limiting asto the scope of the invention which is to be given the full breadth ofthe appended claims and any equivalents thereof.

All patents cited within this document are hereby incorporated byreference in their entirety.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for providing to a controlling devicepersonalized program guide information, comprising: receiving from aserver device via a communications network program guide data; usingpersonal preferences to filter the received program guide data; causingfiltered, received program guide data to be displayed within a displayof the controlling device; and causing the controlling device to usesupplemental media data to dynamically highlight at least one iconwithin the filtered, received program guide data when the filtered,received program guide data is caused to be displayed within the displayof the controlling device wherein the at least one icon is activable tocause the controlling device to issue one or more commands to cause atleast one appliance to access media corresponding to the supplementalmedia data.
 2. A system, comprising: a controlling device having adisplay and programming used to display program guide information withinthe display; a server device having an associated database of networkprogram guide data; and a home computing device in communication withthe server device and the controlling device, the home computing devicehaving programming that uses personal preferences provided to the homecomputing device to filter program guide data received from the databasevia the server device whereby the program guide data will include onlyprogramming information for user-specified sources of programming foreach of plural, different user-specified periods of time and that causesthe filtered, received program guide data to be downloaded to thecontrolling device whereby the downloaded, filtered, received programguide data is available for use by the programming of the controllingdevice to thereby display personalized program guide information withinthe display of the controlling device and wherein the controlling deviceuses supplemental media data to dynamically highlight at least one iconwithin the personalized program guide information when the personalizedprogram guide information is caused to be displayed within the displayof the controlling device and the at least one icon is activable tocause the controlling device to issue one or more commands to cause atleast one appliance to access media corresponding to the supplementalmedia data.
 3. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the plural,different user-specified periods of time comprises a day of a week. 4.The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the plural, differentuser-specified periods of time comprises one or more hours of a day. 5.The system as recited in claim 1, where the plural, differentuser-specified periods of time comprise both a day of a week and one ormore hours within the day of the week.
 6. The system as recited in claim1, wherein the home computing device comprises a personal computer. 7.The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the home computing devicecomprises a set-top box.
 8. A system, comprising: a controlling devicehaving a display and programming used to display program guideinformation within the display; a server device having an associateddatabase of network program guide data; and a home computing device incommunication with the server device and the controlling device, thehome computing device having programming that uses personal preferencesprovided to the home computing device for each of a plurality of usersseparately identifiable to the controlling device to filter programguide data received from the database via the server device whereby theprogram guide data will include only programming information foruser-specified sources of programming for each of plural, differentuser-specified periods of time for each of the plurality of users andthat causes the filtered, received program guide data to be downloadedto the controlling device whereby the downloaded, filtered, receivedprogram guide data is available for use by the programming of thecontrolling device to display personalized program guide informationwithin the display of the controlling device for each of the pluralityof users when each of the plurality of users is accordingly identifiedto the controlling device and wherein the controlling device usessupplemental media data to dynamically highlight at least one iconwithin the personalized program guide information when the personalizedprogram guide information is caused to be displayed within the displayof the controlling device and the at least one icon is activable tocause the controlling device to issue one or more commands to cause atleast one appliance to access media corresponding to the supplementalmedia data.
 9. The system as recited in claim 8, wherein the plural,different user-specified periods of time comprises a day of a week. 10.The system as recited in claim 8, wherein the plural, differentuser-specified periods of time comprises one or more hours of a day. 11.The system as recited in claim 8, where the plural, differentuser-specified periods of time comprise both a day of a week and one ormore hours within the day of the week.
 12. The system as recited inclaim 8, wherein the home computing device comprises a personalcomputer.
 13. The system as recited in claim 8, wherein the homecomputing device comprises a set-top box.
 14. The method as recited inclaim 1, comprising extracting the supplemental media data from at leastone Internet Web site.
 15. The method as recited in claim 14, whereinthe supplemental media data is extracted when causing the filtered,received program guide data to be displayed.
 16. The method as recitedin claim 1, comprising extracting the supplemental media data from amedia transmission.
 17. The method as recited in claim 16, comprisingextracting the supplemental media data when causing the filtered,received program guide data to be displayed.
 18. The method as recitedin claim 1, wherein the supplemental media data comprises time remainingin sporting events.
 19. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein thesupplemental media data comprises scores in sporting events.
 20. Themethod as recited in claim 1, wherein the supplemental media datacomprises user rating data of media corresponding to the displayed,filtered, received program guide data.
 21. The method as recited inclaim 1, wherein the supplemental media data is periodically updatedwhile the displayed, filtered, received program guide data is beingdisplayed within the display of the controlling device.